


maybe we should take it slow

by smallblueandloud



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Discussion of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 5x14, Essbie's 2020 Fic Posting Extravaganza, F/F, Hair Brushing, Multi, Post-Season/Series 06, Season/Series 06 Spoilers, basically just regrouping after the season finale and being sappy and romantic, checkmate aos writers!, i love my girls so much, mentions of the events of 5x14 because the show has NOT given me closure yet, should i tag this as canon compliant? the show never said they WEREN'T dating!, so i'm going to continue to write about skimmons talking about it until i get that in CANON, sort of? there's not a tag for undoing braids but like?? essentially the same thing??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:21:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22120072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallblueandloud/pseuds/smallblueandloud
Summary: “It’s going to be okay,” he says. She nods, vaguely, just listening to the voice she’s missed so much. “It is okay. I know everything’s been- it’s really crazy. I mean, I’m a robot now.” He chuckles and looks down at his hands. “But it’s going to be okay. And you need to sleep.”“Yeah,” says Daisy, looking around the room again. She catches sight of Jemma in the doorway, hovering, and butterflies materialize in her stomach. “I-”Coulson follows her gaze and smiles again. “You should go with her.”(or, late night skimmons talks, part the second. but this time with kissing.)
Relationships: Jemma Simmons/Skye | Daisy Johnson, Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons/Skye | Daisy Johnson, Phil Coulson & Skye | Daisy Johnson
Comments: 4
Kudos: 55





	maybe we should take it slow

**Author's Note:**

> title is from 'ordinary people', by john legend, because it's a lovely song and also angsty but also hopeful enough for the vibe i had for this story. enjoy!
> 
> THIS STORY FEATURES MENTIONS OF A POLYAMOROUS RELATIONSHIP, EVEN THOUGH FITZ IS NOT PRESENT.
> 
> i consider this a sequel (in spirit) to [my other story of skimmons crying](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16041290), even though that one was completely canon compliant (read: it's platonic). go ahead and read that one too, if you're so inclined!

“You should get to bed,” says Coulson, smiling at her. Daisy smiles back, vaguely. After the whole Sarge debacle from earlier today, she’s still a little nervous around this new robot-Coulson, even after she’d argued Mack into agreeing with her decision to activate him.

Mack was desperate enough to get back to Elena that he would’ve agreed with anything, argues her brain. Even your best arguments - which still don’t make much sense.

She sinks further into the cushions of the couch they’re sitting on in some corner of the Zephyr One and ignores her subconscious. The adrenaline crash hit about ten minutes ago and Coulson’s probably right, but she can’t make herself move. She doesn’t want to make herself move.

“I can’t,” she admits, looking down. “Today has been so crazy. I can barely believe everything went so- I can’t-”

She sighs.

“I keep thinking that I’m going to go to sleep and this is all going to have been a dream and we’ll all- May will be-”

“Daisy,” says Coulson, gently. He puts a hand on her shoulder, the familiar pressure grounding her. This is real, she reminds herself, staring somewhere into the middle distance. His voice - his smile - is so familiar that all of her doubts resolve themselves. It’s really him this time.

“It’s going to be okay,” he says. She nods, vaguely, just listening to the voice she’s missed so much. “It is okay. I know everything’s been- it’s really crazy. I mean, I’m a robot now.” He chuckles and looks down at his hands. “But it’s going to be okay. And you need to sleep.”

“Yeah,” says Daisy, looking around the room again. She catches sight of Jemma in the doorway, hovering, and butterflies materialize in her stomach. “I-”

Coulson follows her gaze and smiles again. “You should go with her.”

Daisy glances back at him, grinning, even though she’s feeling more nervous than she has all day. Which says a lot about her bitch of a love life, given everything else that’s happened. “What are you suggesting, old man?”

He chuckles. “Nothing untoward. But you should talk with her. I think you both need it.”

“Yeah,” Daisy repeats, looking back at Jemma. “Okay.”

“Good night,” says Coulson, fondly. Daisy still loves the way he says it, like she belongs with the team in the way that she’s never belonged anywhere else. She looks at him, considering, and then pulls him into a hug, breathing in his scent.

“I’m really, really glad you’re back,” she whispers. His arms come around her shoulders. “Me too.”

Then he releases her and gives her a playful push off the couch. “Go get ‘er, tiger.”

“Shut up,” she says, but turns around anyway. She takes a deep breath and walks up to Jemma, who’s determinately looking at some point over her shoulder.

“Hey,” she says, leaning against the doorframe.

“Hi,” says Jemma, looking tense. She takes a deep breath. Daisy braces herself for the familiar nervous deluge.

“Quarters are limited on this plane,” she says, quickly. Daisy, briefly, is thrown back to what it felt like to meet two young nerds on a plane very much like this one. “And we’re sort of carrying a lot of S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel on a normal day, and now with the four of you and the new Coulson, we-”

“We need to share,” guesses Daisy. Jemma smiles, vaguely, with her smile that Daisy secretly calls Compartmentalization: Everyone’s Sad. Daisy hates that smile, but she puts on a friendly face and tries to focus on the fact that she gets to share a bed with the woman she loves.

It doesn’t work very well.

“That’s okay,” she says, aching for the time when things weren’t so complicated and Jemma felt happy enough to grin. “I mean, we live together.”

Or we used to, she doesn’t add. She and Jemma had sort of nominally moved in together to help with the nightmares from Maveth. Fitz had joined them after they’d all officially started dating.

But Lincoln’s death had changed that. Then, after the fear dimension- and everything else-

They’d gone back to it when they were in space. Daisy and Jemma had supposedly had their own rooms, but that was never really true, with worries making it hard to sleep and the man they loved floating in space somewhere unknown. But then Fitz had come back and Daisy had retreated. And she was alone. Again.

(She still hasn’t spoken to Fitz, not really, not after he’d come back without remembering anything. Especially since he has no idea what he’d done to her.)

“Yes,” says Jemma, with the same tight smile. She turns quickly, leading Daisy to a tiny bunk in the corner of the Zephyr that reminds her of the ones they’d had on the Bus in the very beginning. She types in a long-looking code - out of habit, Daisy notes the numerals, and then flushes when she realizes they’re 07021988, her birthday - and opens the door, gesturing for Daisy to go in ahead of her.

“Home sweet home,” she says, sounding tired, as Daisy sits down on the bed. It’s the only piece of furniture in the room, really, except some drawers that are built into the walls and a shelf to the left.

“Nice place,” says Daisy, sinking into the mattress. Jemma looks around, sighing again, and shrugs. “It’s home, I suppose.”

She grimaces, as if in preparation for something difficult, as her hands go behind her head to undo her braids. Daisy reaches forward before she knows what she’s doing. “Do you want help with those?”

Jemma stops, and Daisy flushes. “I mean- they look really complicated, and it’s hard to- there isn’t a mirror in here- look, it’s been a long day, and the adrenaline crash is being a bitch, and- I was so worried-”

She forces herself to stop before she gets any further. Surprisingly, Jemma smiles. It’s small, but it looks genuine, and Daisy’s heart expands in her chest.

“I’d love your help,” Jemma says, quietly, and sits on the bed in front of Daisy.

She looks over the complicated mess of braids in front of her. She has no clue how Jemma styled them, especially without someone to help her or a mirror, but Daisy’s generally pretty good at hairstyles. She finds a pin and pulls it out, holding her breath. The whole thing loosens and no one cries out in pain. Daisy lets out all the air in her lungs and hunts for another pin.

“How long has it been for you?” she asks, picking out another one, two, three. Somehow it’s easier to talk with her when they’re not face-to-face.

Jemma’s shoulders fall, and then they stay there. Daisy winds the final pin out of her hair and lets the various braids fall, relaxing. She knows how to deal with these, at least.

“I don’t- Daisy-” says Jemma. Her voice sounds choked up, and Daisy’s hands slow in her hair. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”

“I think I finally know how Fitz felt,” Daisy says, trying for humor. There’d been a brief explanation, after Coulson had been woken up, but she still hasn’t processed the fact that it’s been longer for Jemma than it has been for the rest of them. Significantly longer, if her refusal to give them details is any indication. “I love you, Jem, but I don’t know what to say besides I’m here now.”

“I know,” says Jemma, turning around. Her hair falls out of Daisy’s grip and she pouts, a little, but now Jemma’s kissing her softly and that’s much more preferable.

“I know,” Jemma repeats, pulling back a little. “I just- I missed you so much, and you weren’t here, and Fitz- he’s wonderful, of course he is, but he didn’t know why you were avoiding him and I-”

She stops. Daisy lets her hands fall from where they’ve been hovering around her shoulders, and takes a deep breath.

“I love you very much,” whispers Jemma. There are tears in her eyes.

With Fitz, Daisy would expect an endearment after that. Daisy would expect lighting and wining-and-dining beforehand and ultimate happiness afterwards. Fitz’s brand of romance is perfect and knees-weakening, and Daisy loves it.

But Jemma’s never been the romantic sort. Ever since Daisy met her, she was pragmatic, although she didn’t exactly run from feelings - it was just that there were always more important things to focus on. Daisy knows she and Fitz aren’t second to S.H.I.E.L.D. in Jemma’s mind, but she places significant value on their work. Romantic moments with Jemma are spontaneous, miraculous, in the way that ones with Fitz’s carefully planned, purposeful ones aren’t.

This moment, right here, is perfect, and part of it is that neither of them planned it this way, or even knew they would get here.

“I love you too,” says Daisy, putting her hand over Jemma’s right one, which is still on her cheek. “So much.”

Jemma nods, hiccuping. “I’m just- I’m so tired of missing one of you,” she says, quietly. “Usually while you don’t even realize I’m doing it.”

“Yeah,” says Daisy. “I know.”

“And I know things are hard for you- I know you haven’t spoken with Fitz.” Daisy opens her mouth to respond, but before she can think of what to say, Jemma’s continued, “I know it’s selfish, but I want all of us to be together again.”

“Yeah,” says Daisy, feeling her eyes water up. She doesn’t cry, these days, but it’s been a hellish few hours and Jemma’s crying in front of her and she and Fitz have always been her weak spot. “I get it.”

“Oh,” says Jemma. “Oh, Daisy. I’m sorry. It’s going to be alright. We have time, now. We have all the time we need.”

“Yeah,” says Daisy, blinking. “I- I know. I’m happy, I think. It’s okay.”

Jemma smiles slowly. “It is good to see you, darling.”

Daisy smiles back. “Yeah.”

They don’t say anything for a few minutes, just looking at each other. Daisy has missed Jemma, is the truth, and not in the way she’s been missing Fitz, with the ache of more than a year’s separation. Her feelings there are complicated and hard to parse and meanwhile Jemma is her best friend and her life partner and the one she spent an entire year in space with. She doesn’t love one more than the other, of course, but missing Jemma is uncomplicated and bittersweet because Daisy is at least reasonably sure that they still have a relationship.

“Turn around,” she says eventually, putting a quick hand on Jemma’s cheek. “I’m not done with your hair.” Jemma does as she asks without complaint, and Daisy makes quick work of the last of the braids, running her hands through Jemma’s hair when she finally lets it down.

“That feels nice,” says Jemma. Daisy smiles even though Jemma can’t see her face. “I know it does.”

Jemma lets her smooth her hair for a few more minutes before she turns back around. “Daisy,” she says, seriously. “I know it’s been a hard day - a hard few weeks, if we’re being honest - but it’s not over yet.”

Daisy isn’t surprised, not really. But that doesn’t mean she’s not disappointed, just a little. Can’t they have one break? Just one?

“I know,” she says.

“Good,” says Jemma. “Obviously time travel is involved, here. We’re running from the Chronicoms, and that means hiding anywhere and anywhen we can.”

“I think I’m relatively white-passing, so I’ll be okay,” says Daisy, sort of jokingly, sort of not. She looks at Jemma, turning serious. “I can handle this, anyway. I can handle anything, as long as I still get to fall asleep next to you.”

Jemma smiles, leaning in to kiss her. She pulls back, her hair down and sort of messy, and Daisy’s heart seizes with how much she loves this woman. “Good,” says Jemma. “Because we have work to do.”

**Author's Note:**

> whew. i started working on this just after the finale, and it's taken me this long to finish it, lol. i'm just?? really emotional about these two and all they've been through and how through it all they're still together?? i _live_ for this team being family, and especially the ot3 being so close to each other. even though fitz isn't present, he's definitely included!
> 
> oh, speaking of which: PLEASE DO NOT COME INTO THE COMMENTS TO BE CRITICAL OF FITZ. I DID NOT WRITE THIS TO HATE ON FITZ. all three of them love each other! canon events have made that... complicated, but i like to think that they'll figure it out :)
> 
> thank you for reading! i'm [on tumblr](https://smallblueandloud.tumblr.com) and i'm always up for prompts <3 leave a comment if you're so inclined.


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